Coconstructions in spoken data: UD annotation guidelines and first results

Abstract

The paper proposes annotation guidelines for syntactic dependencies that span across speaker turns - including collaborative coconstructions proper, wh-question answers, and backchannels - in spoken language treebanks within the Universal Dependencies framework. Two representations are proposed: a speaker-based representation following the segmentation into speech turns, and a dependency-based representation with dependencies across speech turns. New propositions are also put forward to distinguish between reformulations and repairs, and to promote elements in unfinished phrases.